Introduction to Indian Painting Types

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Indian Painting Styles


painting

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ainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface (support base). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used.In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay, leaf, copper or concrete, and may incorporate multiple other materials including sand, clay, paper, plaster, gold leaf as well as objects.The term painting is also used outside of art as a common trade among craftsmen and builders. Painting is a mode of creative expression, and the forms are numerous. Drawing, gesture (as in gestural painting), composition, narration (as in narrative art), or abstraction (as in abstract art), among other aesthetic modes, may serve to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in a still life or landscape painting), photographic, abstract, be loaded with narrative content, symbolistic (as in Symbolist art), emotive (as in Expressionism), or be political in nature (as in Artivism). The tradition of painting has been carried on in the Indian subcontinent since the ancient times. Standing as a testimony to this fact are the exquisite murals of Ajanta and Ellora, Buddhist palm leaf manuscripts, Mughal and Kangra schools of miniature Indian paintings, etc. Infact, records have been found that indicate the usage of paintings for decorating the doorways, guest rooms, etc. Some traditional Indian paintings, like those of Ajanta, Bagh and Sittanvasal, depict a love for nature and its forces. With time, Indian classical paintings evolved to become a sort of blend of the various traditions influencing them. Even the folk painting of India has become quite popular amongst art lovers, both at the national as well as the international level.


History

I

ndian art originated about five thousand years ago, sometime during the peak of the Indus Valley civilization. Largely influenced by a civilization that came into existence in the 3rd millennium BCE, it blends the spiritual and the sensual, making it rather distinctive in form and appearance. However, as time passed, Indian art has undergone several transformations and has been influenced by various cultures, making it more diverse, yet more inclusive of its people as well.Indian painting has a very long tradition and history in Indian art. The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of pre-historic times, the petroglyphs as found in places like Bhimbetka rock shelters, some of the Stone Age rock paintings found among the Bhimbetka rock shelters are approximately 30,000 years old. India's Buddhist literature is replete with examples of texts which describe palaces of the army and the aristocratic class embellished with paintings, but the paintings of the Ajanta Caves are the most significant of the few survivals. Smaller scale painting in manuscripts was probably also practised in this period, though the earliest survivals are from the medieval period. Indian paintings provide an aesthetic continuum that extends from the early civilisation to the present day. From being essentially religious in purpose in the beginning, Indian painting has evolved over the years to become a fusion of various cultures and traditions.


madhubani

T

he art of Madhubani painting, also referred to as Mithila painting, originated from the Mithila region in the state of Bihar, India. The term 'madhu' literally means 'honey' and 'ban' refers to 'forest'. So those living in the hilly wooded terrains of Bihar gave birth to this wonderful art. These paintings were originally made by the women of the village, on the walls of their homes. Influenced by the tradition and culture of those times, they painted popular mythological figures such as Ram, Sita, Krishna, Radha, Durga, Shiva, Lakshmi and Saraswati; pictures of nature such as the sun, moon, starry nights and religious plants such as the Tulsi (sage); seasonal festivals and so on. The techniques used in Madhubani painting were guarded by the women in the family and were passed on from generation to generation from mothers to their daughters. The artisans who created Madhubani paintings would invoke holy spirits, divine blessings and Mother Maybe that is one of the reasons why their paintings mostly reveal the blissful creative side of Nature, including flora and fauna, animals, fishes, birds, the natural cycle of life and death and many other aspects of creation, many times, even geometrical figures. Using bright, vibrant colors, Madhubani paintings verily pulsate with life and verve! Though these women carried on with their paintings for centuries, this art was known and acknowledged only as late as the 1960s, when the area was affected by severe drought. Looking for a different, nonagricultural way of earning money, they began to bring their paintings out into the open in a bid to sell them and earn a livelihood. Originally depicted on freshly plastered mud walls of huts and displayed during family functions, sacred rituals, ceremonies and marriages, it is now also done on hand-made paper, fabric and canvas. Sita Devi or Jitwarpur village, Ganga Devi and Baua Devi were the ones who were first responsible to transform Mithila paintings from village walls onto canvas and paper.


kalamkari

K

alamkari or Qalamkari art, literally means, "pen-art". The Persian term 'kalam' means 'pen' and 'kari' means 'craftsmanship'. This is a form of hand-painted or block-printed painting on cotton fabric and is done in many different parts of India. Kalamkari work in Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, developed and evolved, thanks to patronage of the Golconda sultanat during the Mughal era. It had a lot of business ties in Persia, due to which the Kalamkari industry came up in a big way in India. It is said that in the olden days, there used to be large groups of painters, singers and musicians (popularly known as chitrakattis), who moved around each village, telling people great stories from Hindu mythology. With time, they started illustrating these stories with impromptu paintings made on canvas sheets. This is how Kalamkari was born. It then went on to evolve steadily through the centuries.There are predominantly two types of Kalamkari art in India. The first is the Srikalahasti style and the other, the Machilipatnam style. Smt. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay is mainly responsible to maintain and develop the art of Kalamkari, as the first Chairperson of All India Handicrafts Board.Even today, Kalamkari craft is practised in many families in Andhra Pradesh and forms a major part of their livelihood. Though Kalamkari art witnessed a slight, temporary decline in between, it was revived in India and abroad and has been given tremendous worldwide exposure since the 18th Century, especially by the English during British Raj in India.


pattachitra

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atachitra is a form of painting that is very distinct and is set apart from the rest. Originated in Orissa, the themes of these paintings mainly revolve around Lord Jagannath, the prime deity at the Jagannath Temple of Puri, a beach town in the East Indian state of Orissa. Patachitras are painted by artists of Orissa, called Chitrakars. They use bold, vibrant and very Indian colors to depict their images.Pata Painting or Patachitra as it is known, originated in the 8th Century and is supposed to have been the earliest form of indegenous art. It thrived on the patronage of royalty and their kin. Pata paintings are very popular with tourists, especially foreign visitors, who take them back as a souvenir. Patachitras depicting the utsava image of Puri Jagannath are considered to be extremely special. These can also be found at several ethnic stores and handicraft expos across the country.

Patachitra Art is traditionally practised by a certain family of artists living around the Jagannath temple area at Puri. Starting off as a ritual, Patachitra Art is now considered to be one of the most cherished collectors' items. The art of Patachitra thrives even today and has attained international status as one of the finest of art forms.


kalighat

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ailghat paintings first came into being during the 19th Century at Kolkata, Bengal, in the market area close to the Kalighat temple there. It first appeared as a souvenir associated with the Kali temple at Kalighat. In the beginning, Kalighat temples only treated Hindu mythological themes, but by and by, it included everyday theme s, secular, social and the current political themes as well. So the art that had till then been within the boundary of religion alone, stepped outside it and commented on contemporary issues affecting the then social, cultural and societal milieu. These paintings started reflecting the new values and new ethics of a modern society. Some artists even painted Imam Husain's horse, Duldul, and aspects of Islam, in order to please their Muslim clients. This art thus emerged as a dynamic form of expression, cleverly combining traditional techniques to form modern images, opinions and concepts. Their paintings, were an impression of their own perception of urban life and society in their times. They would, for instance, show their derision towards the "Babu" culture which raised its hood then, the rise of feminism and liberal attitudes, religious hypocrisy, social debauchery and so on. The Kalighat paintings actually reflected the painters' own orthodoxy and fear of the rapid social changes taking place at the time. Popular themes portrayed then would be of the Rani of Jhansi on horseback, babus wooing their concubines,


WARLI

W

arli art is a beautiful folk art of Maharashtra, traditionally created by the tribal womens. Tribals are the Warli, Malkhar koli, Kathodi, Kokana, Dhodi tribes found on the northern outskirts of Mumbai, in Western India. This art was first explored in the early seventies & from then it was named as “Warli art�. Tribal people express themselves in vivid styles through paintings which they execute on the wa Painted World of the Warlis Yashodhara Dalmia claimed that the Warlis carry on a tradition stretching back to 2500 or 3000 BCE. Warli is the vivid expression of daily and social events of the Warli tribe of Maharashtra, used by them to embellish the walls of village houses. This was the only means of transmitting folklore to a populace not acquainted with the written word. This art form is simple in comparison to the vibrant paintings of Madhubani. The Warli art form is similar to the pre-historic cave paintings in its execution. These extremely rudimentary paintings use a very basic graphic vocabulary: a circle, a triangle and a square. Warli artists hardly use a straight line. Instead of line, series of dots and dashes are made. However nowadays modern artists have begun to draw straight lines in their paintings. In Maharashtra, many of its tourism website, buses and offices are adorned with Warli paintings giving it a status of an official symbol. A lot of merchandise - T-shirts, coasters, linen come with Warli designs and motifs and do brisk sales through exhibitions and tourist outlets. lls of their house. In the book


MUGHAL

M

ughal painting, Mughal also spelled Mogul, style of painting, confined mainly to book illustration and the production of individual miniatures, that evolved in India during the reigns of the Mughal emperors (16th–18th century). In its initial phases it showed some indebtedness to the afavid school of Persian painting but rapidly moved away from Persian ideals.

The school had its beginnings during the reign of the emperor Hum y n (1530–40 and 1555–56). The technique of Mughal painting, in the initial phases, often involved a team of artists, one determining the composition, a second doing the actual colouring, and perhaps a specialist in portraiture working on individual faces.Mughal Art helps creating the strong two-dimensional design making the overall frame pleasant to look at. In many paintings, the scenes narrating different events were painted in several sectors of the same work, in the same frame. In doing so the proportions of these sectors risked making the whole painting look unrealistic.The subjects treated were generally secular.The Miniature artists also painted animals like Cheetah in the scenes involving bravery of a prince. They would paint natural scenes like trees and gardens. Such paintings are done for the illustrations of events narrated in the book Akabarnama. Thus the birds and garden became the additional beauty of the miniatures done during and after his time. However in the subsequent period, the Emperors of Mughal dynasty were not so fond of art. But the miniature paintings had become the integral part of India's social structure. The Rajput kings ruling present day Rajasthan and other areas supported the painters and the art remained alive.


GOND

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he Gonds are among the largest tribes in Central India, numbering about 4 million. Though predominantly centered in Madhya Pradesh, they are present in significant numbers in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The word “Gond” comes from the Dravidian expression kond, meaning “the green mountain.” The recorded history of the Gond people goes back 1400 years, but considering that they inhabit areas where rock paintings dating to the Mesolithic have been found, their antecedents probably date back even further. Many of the Gonds customs echo that of their Mesolithic forbearers. An obvious example of this is the custom of decorating the walls of their houses, an activity that may originate in cave-dwelling traditions of their ancestors.The word “Gond” comes from the Dravidian expression kond, meaning “the green mountain.” The work of Gond artists is rooted in their folk tales and culture, and thus story-telling is a strong element of every painting.The Gonds paint their walls with vibrant depictions of local flora, fauna and gods. In the eyes of a Gond artist, everything is sacred and intimately connected to nature. Thus, the unique oral narrative tradition of the Gonds is reflected in their paintings as well. The work of Gond artists is rooted in their folk tales and culture, and thus story-telling is a strong element of every painting. However every artist today has a personal style and has developed a specific language within these narratives creating a richness of aesthetic forms and styles.


THANGKA

A

thangka, variously spelt as tangka, thanka or tanka is a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton, or silk appliquĂŠ, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, scene, or mandala. Thangkas are traditionally kept unframed and rolled up when not on display, mounted on a textile backing somewhat in the style of Chinese scroll paintings, with a further silk cover on the front. So treated, thangkas can last a long time, but because of their delicate nature, they have to be kept in dry places where moisture will not affect the quality of the silk. Most thankas are relatively small, comparable in size to a Western half-length portrait, but some are extremely large, several metres in each dimension; these were designed to be displayed, typically for very brief periods on a monastery wall, as part of religious festivals. Most thankas were intended for personal meditation or instruction of monastic students. They often have elaborate compositions including many very small figures. A central "deity" is often surrounded by other identified figures in a symmetrical composition. Narrative scenes are less common, but do appear. Thangka serve as important teaching tools depicting the life of the Buddha, various influential lamas and other deities and bodhisattvas. Today printed reproductions at poster size of painted thangka are commonly used for devotional as well as decorative purposes. Images of deities can be used as teaching tools when depicting the life (or lives) of the Buddha, describing historical events concerning important Lamas, or retelling myths associated with other deities.`


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